Top 10 Facebook Marketing KPI’s

Facebook communicates your dealership’s core message and personality, attracts and engages your target customers, and converts fans into customers. But too often, dealers jump onto Facebook without a plan or a clear idea of what success really means for them.

Most of us have experienced how planning improves our endeavors and marketing is no exception. A solid social media strategy plan saves time, money and precious resources…and also puts the dealership in touch with target customers on a more meaningful level. Time spent on strategy planning is evident in the results.

“Tactics without strategy is the noise before defeat.” -Sun Tzu

In my everyday travels, I see lots of dealers using the “trial and error” method of Facebook marketing. Example: “Let’s post this random picture of our product so everyone will see how fantastic it is!” The #1 reason they use this tactic is because they’ve seen another brand do it.

Random pictures of products have been posted by thousands of dealers throughout the country for years. Isn’t it time to stop that and do something unique?

There’s nothing about benign product images and sales jargon that promises something of value to the customer.

Now, if there was a story behind the image that told of a fantastic customer experience, then telling that story would bring you a big step closer to a quality post. Otherwise, it’s just noise…and noise is something we can all do with less of these days.

The ability to recognize the difference between a random, useless post and a quality piece of content is rooted in strategy. Specific goals and their corresponding strategies make Facebook marketing click.

What you post is governed by WHY you post.

Defined within your social media strategy plan should be:

Goals you want to reach

Timeframe to reach them

Roadmap of how you’ll achieve them

Definitive metrics

Look for success markers along your Facebook marketing journey.

Just like the maps app on your phone shows the best route to take toward your destination, KPI’s (Key Performance Indicators) guide you to what success looks like for your Facebook marketing. KPI’s give you a solid foundation from which to measure results.

Top 10 Facebook Marketing KPI’s

EVERY social media strategy plan should outline the metrics you’ll measure and analyze for best results. These are Kruse Control’s top 10 Key Performance Indicators that we use with our clients:

8. Response Rate & Quality

How quickly are you responding to comments and messages? Facebook grades your page for response time.

Is your lead form response time (follow-up to lead form inquiries) reasonable?

How effective are you at Social Customer Service? Currently, 92.5% of brands fail to meet customer expectations on social media and these failures can have big implications.

Bad social customer service isn’t just embarrassing, it’s bad for business.

38% will feel negatively toward the brand without a response, and a full 60% will Tweet about their negative experiences.

2/3 of customers with poor customer experience reduce their spending with a brand.

55% of Americans have switched brands due to poor customer service.

Customers turn to social media when issues arise, expecting a response. 33% prefer to contact brands using social media rather than the telephone. How equipped are you to embrace social media as a customer service channel?

Any opportunity to hear customer feedback is a gift.

9. Sales

Marketing’s job is to serve up leads. Conversions are tracked to determine if the message is resonating. Marketers, however, rarely track sales because it’s a hand off, of sorts. Other organizational processes come into play and many on both sides of the equation don’t bother communicating about sales results.

As a company leader myself, I’ve always thought of marketing and sales holistically. Tracking marketing through to sales results will only improve both.

10. Negative Feedback

How much negative feedback have you received?

Do you know how much is to be expected (ie: unfollows, hide posts, etc)?

What is your process for dealing with negative Facebook reviews?

Note: Facebook, at this point, doesn’t offer even a rudimentary process for appealing a review. Your 4.8 stars can quickly become 2.0 with a few negative reviews, no matter whether they’re real or not.

Next Steps…

Examine your own Facebook marketing results using these top 10 KPI’s. If you haven’t yet determined it, now is the time to get a written social media strategy in place. There’s no sense in waiting; you need it whether you’re outsourcing social media or not. A solid plan with proven strategies takes the guesswork out of social media so you can engage more customers.

Author: Kathi Kruse

Kathi Kruse is an Automotive Social Media Marketing Expert, Blogger, Speaker, Coach, Author and Founder of Kruse Control Inc. Born in the heart of Los Angeles to a family of “car people”, Kathi’s passion for the car business spans a 30-year career managing successful dealerships in Southern California. Kathi is the author of “Automotive Social Business – How to Captivate Your Customers, Sell More Cars & Be Generally Remarkable on Social Media”.EMAIL:kk@krusecontrolinc.com.